#patlabor

[vrysket]

That one tank from Patlabor 2

[nocturnaldollmaker]

Patlabor 2

1993

[anarchic-miscellany]

I finally watched the first 2 "Patlabor" movies recently, and they were bloody excellent: they were unafraid to be complex and Byzantine, and all about the investigative and bureaucratic elements of political conspiracy and mech-show. I enjoyed them immensely. Yet the scene which stuck with me is from the 1st movie when a pair of detectives are sent to look into a man, and for about 4 minutes it is a dialogue free montage of them poking around old shacks, wandering across beautiful skylines and investigating. It's essentially an excuse to have the makers show off their gorgeous watercolour scenery, and I'm all in favour of it.

[appealingtonobody]

[lord-cringefest]

PLEASE

[busterkuris-reviews]

Patlabor: The Mobile Police

4/5

Less of a mecha than a cop show, and even then, the cop stuff is given just as much focus as the downtime. Seeing the SV2 huddled together around a TV or spending their vacation with their family makes the characters endearing, and makes the gorgeous mech action that much more satisfying.

Favorite episode: Long Shot

Least favorite episode: The 450 Million-Year-Old Trap

Letterboxd

[yoan-le-grall]

[gabgirrl]

best logo of all time

[arcadebroke]

AV-98 Ingram Reactive Armor

[sci-fi-gifs]

Many people are God, usually in a universe no bigger than their own minds, all-present, all-knowing. And yet, impotent outside the confines of their heads. And what God cannot do, men will attempt. Patlabor 2: The Movie (1993) dir. Mamoru Oshii

[yodawgiheardyoulikemecha]

AH-88A2 Hellhound, JGSDF

[laboitediabolique]

Cover of the movie program for "Minipato", Shochiku Business Division Co Ltd., March 2002. Scanned from my personal collection.

[lion-sensei]

you can't be saying that patlabor

[tabaciberez]

We need more ugly mechs.

I want to see the ugly mechs. The terrible mechs. The ones with blatant conversions having been done to make a perfectly sane design do something completely fucking different.

These things need to look like mechanical cancer, and not the vaguely sexy flesh-turned-machine type. No, I mean "what the fuck the mechanical body doesn't work like that" type of cancer, where you can clearly see what should have been and sawzaw surgery looks like a reasonable alternative to letting this poor benighted beast live in pain any longer.

We are looking at designs where there was a god here, who then left in disgust at the works of man. This is not where a Zaku holds a Feddy beam rifle or a Nachtreiher slings a Stun Needle, no. Those are but mere impersonators to the depths of terrible we need to hit.

Mecha is fundamentally about exploring the human condition, and humans are fucked-up little critters. Let's show that off for once without such limiting factors as "grace" and "beauty" and "dignity" getting in the way.

[burgers-in-anime]

Patlabor: The New Files, opening 3 (1991)

[acquired-stardust]

Kidoukeisatsu Patlabor Super Nintendo Entertainment System 1994